Guild Wars 2

I’m slightly upset.

See, we’re got this thing. It’s called a guild hall. One of the upgrades for said guild hall, with a requirement of guild level 40, unlocks recipies for so-called “guild weapons”

These upgrades are not cheap. They require a significant effort on behalf of the guild to invest in the new guild hall systems. Systems that are, theoretically supposed to confer guild-themed benefits.

Now, the skins are nice and all, but isn’t it pretty inappropriate to expect people to put in all that work for “guild weapons” with no discernable tie to the guild, then turn around and expect us to shell out gems to get the real guild weapons?

The first set of guild weapons came out at release. These have the logo on ‘em. They’re pretty cheap and avaliable to pretty much any guild with little effort.

The second set of “guild” weapons was released around the same time as guild missions. They require commendations. They have an interesting look, but no guild emblem.

The third (and fourth if you consider those two skins to be different enough to qualify) sets require substantial investment in a guild hall. They have slight sparkles. No guild emblem.

Today, finally, you release a second set of emblemed items. Something guilds have been asking for for years

And they’re black lion RNG chests.

Why?

Look, I get it, black lion skins make money. That’s why the majority of skin releases can’t be earned by playing the game. However, it may behoove you people to remember that PvE in GW2 is an endeavor solely in the pursuit of skins. There are no additional stat tiers.

You’re sending a pretty clear message that you value players opting in to a guild advancement system that you designed far less than players willing to shell out for gems and completely ignore your advancement system.

This isn’t about black lion skins. Sell all the black lion skins you want. This is about adding an upgrade to the game, specifically an upgrade to allow the crafting of guild weapon skins, and then willfully releasing a superior product for gems.

Remember the whole flamekissed armor deal? This is the same issue.

Last time you were telling players that their cultural armor investment didn’t matter.

This time, you’re telling your guilds, who you claim to want to carry forward your game’s community that their investment in those communities doesn’t matter as much as their willingness to gamble an indeterminate amount of money.

Are the different, new skins? Sure they are. As GUILD skins are they objectively superior than what we can actually earn by upgrading the weaponsmith in our guild halls with a substantial amount of effort, time, and gold.

They actually have the guild emblem on them

This is not a difficult concept.

I thought we were turning this ship around finally. I was one of the people singing the praises of how Anet had learned their lessons from HoT and the April patch had proven we were getting back on track.

Was I mistaken?

Am I the only person annoyed by this?

All I can say to this is:
[img]http://www.automationheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/tumblr_static_cheese_205_1362800142.jpg[/img]

In all honesty, I really dont get why people want to cry about something like this. As far as I care, most of the guild weapons look trashy, as does the guild armor. I have no reason to go for it.

edit- meh… image tags dont want to work for me

Aidan Savage.2078:

All I can say to this is:
[img]http://www.automationheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/tumblr_static_cheese_205_1362800142.jpg[/img]

In all honesty, I really dont get why people want to cry about something like this. As far as I care, most of the guild weapons look trashy, as does the guild armor. I have no reason to go for it.

It’s not about whether you personally favor the aesthetics as much as it is that the “guild weapons” unlocked ingame through guild upgrades are, basically, not guild weapons when compared to the black lion versions that are unlocked by gambling.

Whole point of upgrading the hall is to get cool guild stuff for the guild. The weapons upgrade is one of the final ones, and compared to these guild cavalier skins its just plain not a “guild weapon”

I don’t even particularly care for the aesthetics of either set myself, but the point here is that my guild worked really hard to upgrade our hall, and today’s patch basically says “yeah, that’s cute, but if you want the real guild skins you should have skipped upgrading the guy in your hall that makes guild skins, and just bought a bunch of black lion keys.”

Does that make more sense?

I do agree that that the Guild weapons that take so much time to build (tenebrous and shimmering), or even the ones that just use commendations, should have an emblem, or rather, the option to display an emblem. (maybe via a similar method, of have a cloth on the end or something)

Granted the Tenebrous and Shimmering Shields do have the emblem iirc.

PopeUrban.2578:

Was I mistaken?

Am I the only person annoyed by this?

Yes and no.

I would say it’s obvious that the individual teams at ArenaNet are really great at making amazing stuff. Except that they are completely working parallel to eachother and don’t combine their efforts to make Guild Wars 2 a rounded game.

Like balance changes that don’t mesh well with all the modes, rewards that are obtained much easier in one area but not in the other. And ofcourse skins that have alot of potential as guild goals, but are instead put up in the gemstore.

Not to mention the world boss event schedule that completely destroyed any natural chain of events that concerned these bosses. Like the initial map shape was okay, then mega servers came, and they just took it apart, ignoring all previous design and copy pasted it on a schedule. Just to illustrate the point, as it’s possibly necessary to some extend.

Then again, I don’t think it’s always that easy either, but it’s definitely one of those things that they could improve on. (Maybe even should perhaps)

Because HoT is tanking. That’s why.

People (Some) are blind here. The only game to take a 18% loss mitigated only by “item sales” and players are like…I’m so glad to see HoT doing so well. Are you serious?

Box sales had little effect this past quarter.

Why were the ghastly shield added to mystic forge and others? Because the only people buying the stupid thing were “playing” the game. Not using any money; there is not one person who was going to spend thousands of gold on a skin!

The fused weapons MINUS the fire effect. Same thing.

Bet they would now though It’s not too expensive and I have heard of all sorts of prices.

What does that have to do with this?
The fact that:
1. HoT was not nearly as awesome as they made it sound Those F2P players are not buying HoT. They aren’t.

2. In order to make money (after a 18% loss during the last quarter.) That poor design team is going to throw everything they can at the Gemstore.

3. This is a prime example: Mhmm you can do all this extra stuff OR you could just pick a cavalier weapon on the post. Go buy some gems and switch ‘em over to gold…for a fee that we don’t tell you what is. We’ll “pocket” the rest…and give you some coin.

Yeeaah boi I am riding that doom train. Choo choooo.

If you’ve ever worked in business that bottom line is real. It doesn’t matter what you have to do as long as someone isn’t going to take you to court over it. You have to get people in the game. Hence,..HoT 2.0. Trying get another surge of players ASAP/Soon.

Because money?

Why put stuff in the game when you can put it in the gem store.
It’s the exact same logic used for the Exalted Glider – why have it as a final reward for the mastery track – nooooo – let’s put it in the gem store.

If it makes money – they’ll put it in the gem store.

….but…but…but….they’ve got BUILT-IN hankies! After a long day of slaughtering centaurs and mordrem, you can take a break to blow your nose on your preferred guild!

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643

….but…but…but….they’ve got BUILT-IN hankies! After a long day of slaughtering centaurs and mordrem, you can take a break to blow your nose on your preferred guild!

~EW

For once, your signature fits perfectly with your post.

This thread risks becoming an echo chamber of just doom and more doom, which wasn’t really the intent.

I think it’s important to call these sorts of concerns to Anet’s attention as it may be unclear WHAT exactly we’re complaining about with something like this, or the exalted glider, etc.

So let me make, at least my position clear.

I don’t have a problem with black lion skins, or outfits, or whatever.

I have a problem when something that has such an obvious tie to existing content is in stead shuffled off to the gem store.

I don’t want to just be another “Yeah ALL the things are in the gem store, forget this game” post. Some stuff belongs in the gem store. Most of the black lion skin sets are just thematically neutral. Outfits versus armor is a clear distintion Anet chose to make. Ten thousand nutty nonsensical glider skins, again fine. Nobody sees parrot wings and says “That should obviously come from doing thing X, not the gem store”

The real problem here is the volume of gem store stuff compared to the volume of stuff obtainable by playing the game. The game we paid for. Then we bought an expansion for.

Want to push two gem store sets for every one released in the game? That’s fair! The current ratio is abysmally skewed toward the gem store. I get that its damage control because HoT didn’t sell well, but perhaps its worth understanding why HoT didn’t meet expectations. It carries the same price tag as the base game, but upon “unboxing” the thing you just bought you discover the lootable rewards are all locked behind a further gem store pay wall.

Gliding is a core HoT system, and at the point of release There were zero Glider skins obtainable by playing HoT

I don’t want to just sit here and complain. I want to engender a productive discussion. I LIKE GW2, I like it a lot in fact, but Arenanet needs to realize that their ongoing reward structures revolve around the acquisition of skins. When we can reliably see 2-5 new skins a moth in the gem store, and, what, three obtainable within the game In the entirety of time since HoT released it displays a disconnect between the fundamental reward structure of all parts of GW2 is, and what the game is actually rewarding.

Arenanet, your game’s entire reward structure is framed around cosmetic rewards, and you seem determined to only allow players to earn a bare minimum of those rewards by playing the game. This does not create a sense of trust in you as developers, and does not fill your community with a sense that you value their play time as much as you value their money.

Nobody is asking you to stop selling gem store items. Some of us would like thee to be a reasonable parity between gem store items and those earned in game so that our time spend feels rewarded rather than exploited with the flimsy justification that we can trade gold for gems.

Maybe we can put together a list of things we see as “bad” gem store items so Mo can see where our concerns are?

Stuff I’ve seen mentioned:

Exalted/Soul River gliders: Obviously thematically tied to a relevant mastry/raid.

The subject of the thread, guild weapons thematically tied to existing “guild weaponsmith”

Various raid minis – again obviously tied to raids.

“Crystal” and “arbiter” medium and light armor style outfits – Light and medium mistward armor repurposed as outfits.

Anything else you guys can think of that rubs you the wrong way?

What rubs me the wrong ways is the lack of armor in this game ever since the original release of Core GW2.

Not enough armor in the game, not enough armor in the gem store – what are they even doing?

Harper.4173:

What rubs me the wrong ways is the lack of armor in this game ever since the original release of Core GW2.

Not enough armor in the game, not enough armor in the gem store – what are they even doing?

Making more goofy outfits with giant shoulder pads you can’t toggle off and wings because Wing Wars 2.

They responded to the complaints about gem store armor by making everything outfits. I don’t think anyone would be upset if they released a new armor set that was only usable for one weight on a more regular cadence, as long as they rotated the weight.

It seems the reasoning behind armor (and it’s a valid one) is that they have to create three weights, with two gender variations, and all the appropriate racial tweaks each time.

So yeah, outfits are cheaper to develop, since they build only one “weight” of armor, call it an outfit, and then just let every class wear it as a full set so there aren’t and issues with how the seams in the various weights are rigged when you mix sets.

Personally, I’d rather just see like a third of those outfits enter the game as armor, even if it meant I could use 2/3 of them on my favorite character. At least then I’d have a medium set to look forward to in a few patches that I could actually earn by playing the game and mix/match with my other stuff.

Would you guys be willing to have 2/3 of armor weights left out each reward patch as long as it meant armor was being added to the game at a reasonable pace on a regular light>medium>heavy schedule?

I get the impression that the weapons weren’t specifically designed with guilds in mind, but rather as they were being developed or even after they were done someone on the development team got the idea to either add a guild emblem to the cloth or even added the entire cloth portion after they were done for extra visual flair. Some of the cloth bits look rather tacked on, as if they were added because they had to be and not originally designed that way. And even the with the ones that seem more natural, the subdued way the emblem is displayed makes me think it was an afterthought rather than designed with the guild emblem in mind. All the other guild gear that uses the emblem has it displayed prominently and the design is meant to draw attention to it, where here its just kind of dangling off the end and only slightly noticeable.

And the dev team liked the idea enough and since it was an easy enough change to make they decided to run with it and make it a little “bonus”.

So I don’t really get the feeling that they intentionally withheld the weapons in order to pressure guilds to buy them or anything like that.

Substance E.4852:

Harper.4173:

What rubs me the wrong ways is the lack of armor in this game ever since the original release of Core GW2.

Not enough armor in the game, not enough armor in the gem store – what are they even doing?

Making more goofy outfits with giant shoulder pads you can’t toggle off and wings because Wing Wars 2.

I also remember the terrible reason they gave on these very forums for not giving us capes.
Apparently capes obscure too much of our character and ruin our capacity to see our character and immerse ourselves in the world. Or something like that.

Then we get these ridiculous wings, furniture backpieces and so forth.
Such a sham.

PopeUrban.2578:

They responded to the complaints about gem store armor by making everything outfits. I don’t think anyone would be upset if they released a new armor set that was only usable for one weight on a more regular cadence, as long as they rotated the weight.

It seems the reasoning behind armor (and it’s a valid one) is that they have to create three weights, with two gender variations, and all the appropriate racial tweaks each time.

So yeah, outfits are cheaper to develop, since they build only one “weight” of armor, call it an outfit, and then just let every class wear it as a full set so there aren’t and issues with how the seams in the various weights are rigged when you mix sets.

Personally, I’d rather just see like a third of those outfits enter the game as armor, even if it meant I could use 2/3 of them on my favorite character. At least then I’d have a medium set to look forward to in a few patches that I could actually earn by playing the game and mix/match with my other stuff.

Would you guys be willing to have 2/3 of armor weights left out each reward patch as long as it meant armor was being added to the game at a reasonable pace on a regular light>medium>heavy schedule?

Yes. I absolutely hate outfits – you can’t mix them, or match them.
You can’t even wear the helms only..

Electro.4173:

I get the impression that the weapons weren’t specifically designed with guilds in mind, but rather as they were being developed or even after they were done someone on the development team got the idea to either add a guild emblem to the cloth or even added the entire cloth portion after they were done for extra visual flair. Some of the cloth bits look rather tacked on, as if they were added because they had to be and not originally designed that way. And even the with the ones that seem more natural, the subdued way the emblem is displayed makes me think it was an afterthought rather than designed with the guild emblem in mind. All the other guild gear that uses the emblem has it displayed prominently and the design is meant to draw attention to it, where here its just kind of dangling off the end and only slightly noticeable.

And the dev team liked the idea enough and since it was an easy enough change to make they decided to run with it and make it a little “bonus”.

So I don’t really get the feeling that they intentionally withheld the weapons in order to pressure guilds to buy them or anything like that.

Oh I’m not at all saying they intentionally withheld them. I’m saying that when “a little extra” effort can go in to a gem store item, but can’t ever be applied to an ingame item that takes significant time and resources… that’s a problem.

It’s an implied value statement basically. People said with the second set of guild weapons “hey, where are the guild logos?” and then the third set “hey where are the guild logos?”

Nothing.

But when they can reason to make a couple more gems off of a kite or a BLC skin they can be bothered to put in the effort.

That’s really the problem here. They were fully aware of the desire for exactly this thing, were willing to put a little extra effort in the the BLC skin, but weren’t willing to put the extra effort in to several years worth of actual guild skins.

Looking at the cavalier’s skins, its quite obvious that they were designed from the ground up to have something printed on the tassels, as the tassels are the centerpiece of their designs. The non-logo versions are atypically blank and devoid of texture depth compared to other skins where they’ve done tassels/ornamentation.

Is it possible they weren’t originally designed with guild logos in mind, without the tassels? Sure. I find that proposition even more disturbing though. The idea they were willing to take a black lion skin back to the shop to add guild functionality at the expense of its original design in a post guild hall game whilst giving no thought to how it compares to the stuff acquired from the actual guild hall.

It’s a value statement. 50 bucks for an expansion is just not as important as being willing to gamble gems. GW1 did not have this problem. The meat of every campaign’s rewards were right there, in the campaign, for the asking price. There was a selection of cash shop outfits, but the game lived and died by selling expansions that were worth the asking price.

The way Anet is conducting business currently, it seems as if they’re content to sell expansions that aren’t worth the asking price as long as they can nickel and dime people one skin at a time, regardless of its effect on the desirability or utility of ingame rewards.

And yet again more RNG cash shop skins…I am tired of this and will not be buying these, i only bought the Spectral greatsword because it looked like frostmourne but sadly the flame colour can’t be changed >_<

They are slowly slipping down the path that alot of F2P games go where they constantly make cash shop stuff because not enough money is coming in but it is because you have so much cash shop stuff and RNG based that people spend less.

I know making outfits is easier and quicker but with HoT we only got 2 sets of complete armour, which only parts of them look good, and about 6 weapon sets was it, also the unique armour bits and weapon skins. But now you have produced more HoT Cash Shop outfits and weapon skins than what was provided in the Expansion and that is just a big no as the moment I see that I start to think that they have given up on making quality stuff and just milk its community for what they can.

If you want your customers to spend more on you then make a game they WANT to spend on not where they feel they have to or they will not get this outfit or skin again.

Harper.4173:

Substance E.4852:

Harper.4173:

What rubs me the wrong ways is the lack of armor in this game ever since the original release of Core GW2.

Not enough armor in the game, not enough armor in the gem store – what are they even doing?

Making more goofy outfits with giant shoulder pads you can’t toggle off and wings because Wing Wars 2.

I also remember the terrible reason they gave on these very forums for not giving us capes.
Apparently capes obscure too much of our character and ruin our capacity to see our character and immerse ourselves in the world. Or something like that.

Then we get these ridiculous wings, furniture backpieces and so forth.
Such a sham.

As far as I can tell, pretty much the only reason they haven’t done it is because the resources it would take to accurately create or imitate cloth physics such that the cape collides with our toons rather than clip into them the way every other cloth/hair rig does.

This wouldn’t even be that big of a deal since I believe the capes in GW1 clipped in the same way. The problem comes from the fact that the Charr stand in a hunched over posture and unless you want their cape to be a buttcape, there’s really no way for it to drape across their backs.

I know a fair bit about rigging but I’m not going to pretend that I know whether there’s a way for them to set up an imitation cloth rig while also having limitations on the movement of the joints to make it so they don’t move past particular point and create “imitation collision”. Basically they could in theory set it up so the rig is programmed to “collide” with a basic shell of a Charr’s back. All I can say for sure is they don’t seem to have done this with what I’ve seen of cloth/hair rigs so far. They all clip into themselves and everything else while often even stretching to a certain degree (though I think that part’s intended).

The small cape on the new shield makes it look like they might be able to make it work but when you equip it in your hand you’ll see that it looks that way because of the rigidity of the joints closer to the shield vs the end. It behaves the same in both scenarios and defies gravity when you hold it.

I may very well be talking out my kitten but this is my best guess since Anet doesn’t seem to want to spell it out for us in technical terms as to why it won’t work despite the obvious demand and subsequent money they’d make.

TLDR: Blame the hunchbacks known as Charr for why we don’t have proper capes now, and likely never will in the future.

I can’t agree at all with the assumption made in the complaint. On the one hand, the OP admits to being okay with BL skins, which are (a) originally available via BL tickets (a random drop from BL chests) and (b) always available on the TP (at least while current). On the other hand, they are complaining that the Cavalier set is nearly identical to the Guild Cavalier set.

I don’t see any issue at all. Those who want something with the guild logo can get this, without restoring to the TP or BL chests.

Sure, I’d like to see more sets that are specific to guild and specific to dungeons and so forth, but there are only some many designers and animators working at ANet. Sometimes, we’re going to see copies and sometimes we’ll see unique.

You were doing well until:

PopeUrban.2578:

However, it may behoove you people to remember that PvE in GW2 is an endeavor solely in the pursuit of skins.

Then I stopped reading, because you are wrong.

DoctorDing.5890:

You were doing well until:

PopeUrban.2578:

However, it may behoove you people to remember that PvE in GW2 is an endeavor solely in the pursuit of skins.

Then I stopped reading, because you are wrong.

To be fair, he put it in cursive, which indiacates that it isn’t actually the sole purpose, but that it comes across that way.
“solely” might have been better.

That being said, it is very appearent that they are not really consistent with their rewards and how they distribute them.

I am personaly for game first, shop later.

All the enemies using BLC weapons? Have them drop them. Mordrem with Ley Line Weapons? Tengu with these windy weapons? Molten Alliance fused weapons? Let them drop.
Guild Weapons and Armor which help promoting your guild and feel more connected to them. Should be first aquired ingame and maybe some additional pieces in the shop.
Which means the backpiece banner are better suited for the Guild Hall.

BLC weapons should be additions to the world and not the sole way to get something cool you see every enemy you encounter have.
If I kill someone with a cool hammer, I would like to have a chance of picking it up. WYSIWYG.
It makes certain areas of the game just much more rewarding that way.

It is allready a shame that there are certain items sold via BLC, before they were even introduced ingame.
Form a lore perspective it seems like Evon Gnashblade is working with every enemy to get us their weapons.
How else would we get Ley Line Weapons months before we even meet the first Mordrem Guard?

It is not like their artist aren’t able to provide a constant stream of weapons for the gem-shop.
They are certainly capable of doing so.
Distributing some of them to certain loottables shouldn’t be a problem.
Though there would be some angry, that they spend a lot of gold or money to get them beforehand… ups…

Anyway. The weapons are great. It is great that they exist, but please think about where you put them and don’t go after the quick cash.
It is much healthier for the game.

We will approach point, where BLC weapon sets are outnumbering ingame weapon sets, which isn’t a good thing.

Substance E.4852:

Harper.4173:

Substance E.4852:

Harper.4173:

What rubs me the wrong ways is the lack of armor in this game ever since the original release of Core GW2.

Not enough armor in the game, not enough armor in the gem store – what are they even doing?

Making more goofy outfits with giant shoulder pads you can’t toggle off and wings because Wing Wars 2.

I also remember the terrible reason they gave on these very forums for not giving us capes.
Apparently capes obscure too much of our character and ruin our capacity to see our character and immerse ourselves in the world. Or something like that.

Then we get these ridiculous wings, furniture backpieces and so forth.
Such a sham.

As far as I can tell, pretty much the only reason they haven’t done it is because the resources it would take to accurately create or imitate cloth physics such that the cape collides with our toons rather than clip into them the way every other cloth/hair rig does.

This wouldn’t even be that big of a deal since I believe the capes in GW1 clipped in the same way. The problem comes from the fact that the Charr stand in a hunched over posture and unless you want their cape to be a buttcape, there’s really no way for it to drape across their backs.

I know a fair bit about rigging but I’m not going to pretend that I know whether there’s a way for them to set up an imitation cloth rig while also having limitations on the movement of the joints to make it so they don’t move past particular point and create “imitation collision”. Basically they could in theory set it up so the rig is programmed to “collide” with a basic shell of a Charr’s back. All I can say for sure is they don’t seem to have done this with what I’ve seen of cloth/hair rigs so far. They all clip into themselves and everything else while often even stretching to a certain degree (though I think that part’s intended).

The small cape on the new shield makes it look like they might be able to make it work but when you equip it in your hand you’ll see that it looks that way because of the rigidity of the joints closer to the shield vs the end. It behaves the same in both scenarios and defies gravity when you hold it.

I may very well be talking out my kitten but this is my best guess since Anet doesn’t seem to want to spell it out for us in technical terms as to why it won’t work despite the obvious demand and subsequent money they’d make.

TLDR: Blame the hunchbacks known as Charr for why we don’t have proper capes now, and likely never will in the future.

1. Just don’t make capes for Charr – I know it sounds weird but why do it? You could have capes for all other 4 races – and give charr something else – similar but different.
Think of it sort of like cultural armor – which is different for every race.

2.Just because we’re not trained developers doesn’t mean they should just pull the wool over our eyes like that. I would have accepted a straight forward explanation akin to what you just gave us – but instead we’re taken for fools and given some tinfoil explanation about “character identity” while they release 20310312 sets of wings that cover the entire screen.

DoctorDing.5890:

You were doing well until:

PopeUrban.2578:

However, it may behoove you people to remember that PvE in GW2 is an endeavor solely in the pursuit of skins.

Then I stopped reading, because you are wrong.

Maybe that’s an oversimplification.

A clearer way of putting it is that the reward structure in PvE (and PvP for that matter) is phrased solely for the acquisition of skins. Skins are the rewards in GW2.

The game’s proverbial “carrot” at the end of the game play “stick” is completely cosmetic.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

On the other hand, they are complaining that the Cavalier set is nearly identical to the Guild Cavalier set.

I don’t see any issue at all. Those who want something with the guild logo can get this, without restoring to the TP or BL chests.

That’s not the issue. The Issue is that they’re selling via real money gambling something that fits the description of “guild weapon” better than the last two sets of “guild weapons” obtainable by actually upgrading a guild and doing guild content.

Its the fact that pulling out your credit card (or paying your gold for someone else to do so through the exchange) is of greater value than participating in the content.

The argument “you can buy it with gold” is a smoke screen that the microtransaction model uses to obfuscate the facts. These items don’t enter the game without someone spending real money on microtransactions.

Not equivalent or different value, as with many black lion collections. Many collections are just neat skins with no clear grounding or ties to content. Those are “good” black lion items. Stuff like this, or the soul river glider, or the raid minis, or the exalted glider, those are “bad” black lion items because they actively erode both the reward and incentive to do the content in the first place. They actively harm the reward model of the game by being not just equivalent options like the release era black lion items, but the only options.

This isn’t a problem in games where power progression is the primary reward structure, but in GW2 cosmetics are the primary reward structure. Over the past year the primary source of rewards entering the game has come from microtransactions rather than playing the game

Not half of the rewards. But the vast majority of the rewards.

I don’t care that guild cavalier and cavalier look the same. I care that getting a “guild skin” is much more about getting someone else to whip out a credit card and gamble an indeterminate amount of money, or do so myself, than actually investing the time and effort in to upgrading a guild weaponsmith

I care that getting an exalted glider is more efficiently achieved by directly or indirectly giving Arenanet ten real dollars than by progressing exalted mastries, or gliding mastries.

I care that the game rewards, by and large, buying gems or paying someone else gold to do so as a method of acquisition of its primary reward system more than playing the game

This was not the way of things at release. Since HoT’s rather disappointing rewards pool this has changed, relfexively to cover losses, as a result of having a disappointing rewards pool in the first place. The rate of gem store skins has kicked in to overdrive in the past six months while adding less than an eighth as many skins to an already rewards-light expansion.

At release GW2 primarily rewarded players for playing the game, with a few unique skins acquirable through the gem store. Today, GW2 primarily rewards players for buying or trading for gem store items with a few unique skins acquirable through playing the game.

That’s the problem. My annoyance at the guild Cavalier’s set is just a symptom of that problem. The ongoing trend away from unique ingame rewards and toward gem store items.

Substance E.4852:

TLDR: Blame the hunchbacks known as Charr for why we don’t have proper capes now, and likely never will in the future.

Kind of a silly excuse not have them in the game. If they can’t get it to work properly for Char then make it as cloak/cape for every humanoid class and just make it a scarf or something on Char. Same items look different on genders(mantle of the lich for example), whats the difference if they start doing it to the races.

Xenesis.6389:

Substance E.4852:

TLDR: Blame the hunchbacks known as Charr for why we don’t have proper capes now, and likely never will in the future.

Kind of a silly excuse not have them in the game. If they can’t get it to work properly for Char then make it as cloak/cape for every humanoid class and just make it a scarf or something on Char. Same items look different on genders(mantle of the lich for example), whats the difference if they start going it to the races.

Because “MOMMMMMMMM, They have capes and I want one now!”

I have to admit it seems backward that guild weapons obtained via the guild upgrade process do not sport the guild logo, but that BL ones do. I agree that it sends the wrong message.